Gorilla Feet
by neutralise
Summary: In which Norman discovers Ruby is growing up. Or at least getting there. family!fic, no pairings


**Title**: Gorilla Feet**  
Author**: Grey Saturdays**  
Series**: _Pokemon_**  
Rating**: PG**  
Genre**: General/family, with some humor in it**  
Summary**: In which Norman discovers Ruby is growing up. Or at least getting there.**  
Disclaimer**: _Pokemon_ = not mine.

* * *

Between a staggering amount of challengers to come to his gym and running various errands with Professor Birch, Norman, as he quietly slipped inside his house, had never been more grateful for the end of the week to finally arrive. The smells of his wife's delicious cooking- tonight's meal smelled like chicken divan and various vegetables, something he would be looking forward to immensely- wafted through the air and it made the dull pang of hunger more prominent. It was only now Norman was cognizant of how much of a toll this busy week had taken on him and how much he genuinely would be anticipating a quiet weekend ahead.

"Is that you, Norman?" Caroline had come from the living room, a warm smile on her soft features; she soon approached Norman with a hug and a chaste kiss on the lips, before commenting, "Have a long day today, dear?"

"Just like the rest of the week."

She chuckled. "I can tell, your shoulders are very tense. You mustn't let that get to your body, dear…" It was now Norman's turn to laugh; Caroline was strangely fixated on his shoulders and how they always felt tight to her, but the quick massage that followed felt especially wonderful tonight.

"Dinner will be ready in a couple of minutes," said Caroline; "I'm going to go back into the kitchen so I don't burn it. In the mean time, just relax, dear." With that, she disappeared back into the living room; Norman had been extremely lucky, finding such a caring and faithful wife like Caroline- in fact, he was grateful to have a family such as his, even if he didn't always display his affections towards them. This held especially true for Ruby, his only child; the depth of their relationship was very debatable at times, but in the end, Norman still cared for Ruby immensely, even if his son didn't see it.

He paused. That wasn't right—their closeness _had been_ questionable, before the battle of the ancients. And it had been understandable enough: he barely was in Ruby's life for the majority of his childhood; the word "dad" must have had held little significance to the boy. But whenever he _was_ around, Norman wasn't the father he had wanted Ruby to see- he was so obsessed in pinpointing Rayquaza's location in hopes of finally living a normal life with his family, he had completely forgotten _why_ he was doing it. When they had relocated to Hoenn, Norman had wanted the move to be the catalyst that would hopefully reinvent their relationship, but upon discovering that Ruby had ran away, he was inclined to believe his hopes would not come to fruition.

It was ironic to the Gym Leader that something as awful and utterly destructive as the nefarious schemes of Teams Magma and Aqua would present a chance to salvage their relationship they had. Nevertheless, it had been Ruby, of all people, alongside Birch's girl, that would ultimately foil their plots to revive Kyogre and Groudon for their selfish reasons. Norman, of course, had helped contribute to the cause by finding Rayquaza, but… A fleeting darkness had started to settle on his mind before he quickly shook it away; he couldn't recall much after he had finally taken control of the majestic beast, but Norman _did_ remember the initial moments after he had woken up. He had seen, possibly even imagined seeing, a small, strange, green creature with wide eyes flitting amongst the rubble of the destruction. For a brief moment, it glanced at Norman before ultimately vanishing into thin air.

When he had returned to Sootopolis City from wherever he had fallen (that too was an awfully fuzzy memory and very rarely did Norman forget anything), its citizens had been initially shocked to see him, which in turn had made Norman wonder what had really went down. One of the last things he had expected to hear was of his apparent death. Nevertheless, he was still very much alive, although how this was, he had no idea. At that point, he had no inclination to know, for there were more important matters and people to attend to at the present moment.

But since then, Norman had noticed a change in his relationship with Ruby; granted it was a very small change, but it was nevertheless still a change. Whenever they were in the same room together, the atmosphere didn't feel as tense pre-battle; and while Norman still became upset with Ruby, his outbursts were growing less frequent. He even resolved to (try to) understand Ruby's insane obsession with contests, albeit very awkwardly, periodically asking questions to his highly suspicious son about contests. By no means were the two suddenly transformed to be automatically understanding and tolerant of one another's choice in hobbies, but such radical changes didn't happen so suddenly anyway.

_At least_, thought Norman, with what felt like a smirk on his lips, _we're getting there_.

There was a commotion suddenly in a room down the hallway, followed by the sound of Ruby's voice: "Disgusting, as always, but even Dad will be pleasantly surprised when I'm finished with you."

With a frown, Norman froze. As more noises drifted into the hallway, he realized Ruby was in the bathroom and immediately, he was both curious and suspicious. There had been plenty of moments in his life Ruby had begged Norman to let him groom his Pokémon; and without fail, Norman had forbade him, mainly because he felt they looked fine the way they were, no matter how many times Ruby would "secretly" make a jab at his Slakoths' "dirty, matted hides".

Very stealthily, Norman crept up to the bathroom door, which was slightly cracked open. There wasn't anymore racket coming from inside, but Norman did hear Ruby humming happily. The sound of Ruby humming, Norman had learned, always meant disastrous things were soon to follow.

Against his own better judgment, he opened the door.

The bathroom no longer resembled a bathroom in the slightest: towels and an astounding amount of various beauty products for Pokémon were strewn about on the floor and on the counter top. Sprawled out lazily on the floor were Norman's Slakoths, both of which had been thoroughly washed (and much to his bewilderment, were literally sparkling) and were wearing what Norman assumed to be matching, frilly pink sweaters and knit hats. Not far from those eyesores, his Vigoroth, who sparkled as well, was trying to claw off whatever garish accessory it was wearing. In the bathtub was a gigantic mass of frothy white bubbles that grunted and shifted; it was only a few seconds later that Norman realized the enormous heap of bubbles was none other than his Slaking. And behind the bubbles was Ruby, busily and obsessively scrubbing Slaking, looking absolutely and frighteningly manic in his work.

As Norman very carefully and very disbelievingly eyed the disastrous scene before him, the urge to throttle the life out of Ruby steadily climbed to an unhealthy amount. The very small shred of rationality within his head was desperately telling to stay calm, stay level-headed, that the situation at hand did not warrant filicide, but this voice was small and it soon was forsaken entirely.

"Ruby." Norman's voice came out unpleasantly forced and they barely escaped without them sounding murderous. "… Might I ask what you're doing right now?"

"I'm busy, Dad, but I'm almost done," was his son's quick but maddeningly nonchalant reply; Ruby didn't even bother looking up at his father, instead intent on washing Slaking's coarse fur with a brush-like scrubber. For a split second, Norman wondered whether Ruby had registered the fact he was standing there, completely oblivious to the suddenly intense atmosphere in the room. This in turn made Norman even more furious, if that at all was possible.

"Put the brush down, Ruby."

"Yeah, Dad, in a minute. Slaking's fur-"

"_Put the brush down. Now._" Ruby paused, and gently set the brush down on the ledge of the bathtub. He looked up at his father and it was there Norman had realized something… different about the way Ruby reacted. Ordinarily Ruby would have been extremely peeved and responded in a snotty tone if someone had interrupted him during a grooming session- in all fairness, Norman would have too, if he had actually liked the hobby of grooming. But today Ruby's gaze was placid, almost thoughtful. Nevertheless, not to be fazed by something unusual, Norman pressed on sternly.

"_What_, might I ask, are you exactly doing right now?" Norman snapped, making a gesture to the sight all around him. "Doing something I have _asked_ you- I've even _told_ this to you _numerous_ times- not to do with my Pokemon? And here you are, completely disregarding that request! Well? What do you have to say for yourself?" A heavy silence greeted his question. Then:

"I'm sorry, Dad." Norman hadn't seen _that_ coming. He ogled at Ruby; the expression on his son's face was actually sincere and a slightly regretful. "I wanted to do something nice for you," the boy continued on, "but I should have asked. If you'll let me finish Slaking, I'll be done."

For one of the very few times in his life, Norman (appropriately) was at a complete loss for words. Ruby _never_ did anything for reasons like he stated—it just wasn't like him. And yet here he was… Norman narrowed his eyes. Whatever Ruby was obviously plotting, he would find out and he'd find it soon. He went to open his mouth when Ruby abruptly cut him off.

"I know you don't believe me," he said, picking up the brush again, pressing against Slaking's back. He chuckled very softly. "I would have thought you, of all people, would have understood."

"Where are you going with this?"

"No need to sound so distrusting, Dad," responded the dark-haired boy, wearing a smirk that did nothing to assuage Norman's suspicions. The smirk, however, flitted away just as quickly as it had came, now replaced with a smile that was half content, half serious. "The battle between Kyogre and Groudon… I don't know if it necessarily applies to you, Dad, but that battle put everything I knew into a totally different perspective. That battle… it really showed me just how fleeting our lives can be." Now, Ruby was tight-lipped and grim as he set the brush down and reached for the showerhead. But he had lingered there for one second as his face grew dark.

"Losing you was devastating, Dad. But losing you and knowing that I never really made an effort to get close to you, despite our differences…" His son's voice was eerily quiet and Norman could have sworn it was wavering. "You will never understand the pain that comes with knowing that." He finally pulled the showerhead out, pressed the notch on its side and began to rinse the suds from Slaking. It felt awfully cliché of Norman to admit it to himself, but it truly had felt as if the world completely stopped in the wake of Ruby's confession. Never would have Norman dreamed of seeing such a brutally honest side of his son- he felt a bit guilty for once believing Ruby was never capable of understand such deep and complex emotions. He struggled to find something, _anything_ to say in response, but he could not.

"… I… I don't really know why I'm still here, to be honest," Norman awkwardly stated after a long and almost unbearable silence. "I do think, however, this is fate's way of giving both of us another chance. And what you said, Ruby…" He swallowed, unsure of why the words he wanted to say were suddenly so difficult to express. "That means more to me than anything else in the world." He felt very small and humbled and any previous feelings towards Ruby had been erased at this point.

"Hahaha. You sound sort of sad about that," Ruby laughed, wiping a stray mass of bubbles that had brushed against his arm while he was rinsing. "I thought you would have been happy to see me finally grow up- you use to get on me about that all the time in the past."

"Not _all_ the time, boy."

"The point still remains." Ruby turned his attention toward Slaking, whose fur, now being blow dried, shone brilliantly. "Now, to start in on those nasty feet of yours…"

"I don't think Slaking's feet are _that_ disgusting, Ruby."

"That's because your feet are as gross, if not worse." For a split second, a flash of anger bubbled within him and Norman was sorely attempted to bash Ruby against the wall. That impulse quickly faded away, however, when Norman thought of a better retaliation.

"I wouldn't be saying that if I were you," the Gym Leader smugly told his son; "From the looks of things, you're inheriting my half of genes. Just how do you know you won't be getting my feet, either?" The look on Ruby's faceless was priceless, as he frantically tried to hide his utter horror and disgust at the idea. Norman only chuckled, deciding against saying anything more.

"Norman! Ruby!" Caroline's voice rang. "Dinner's ready!"

"We'll be down in a second, Ruby and I are busy right now," Norman called back; he then turned to Ruby and said with a hint of amusement, "You can worry about its feet after dinner. I'm pretty certain Slaking isn't in a rush to get its feet done." Ruby, however, did not respond; Norman took a quick glance at his son, only to see Ruby's face contorted into a scowl.

"What's your problem?"

"The foot comment was _completely_ unnecessary, Dad."

"Hey now, I never said you were going to get them for sure," Norman told him, smirking, "but your chances are pretty high."

"Are you _kidding_ me?" Ruby pathetically whined, looking completely, distressed. "I don't _want_ gorilla feet! They're so disgusting and nasty and gross and _ehwww_! And if there's anyone whose feet can be possibly more revolting, it's gotta be _Sapphire's_ feet. I want to die every time I see her barefoot and—"

"Quit your whining, won't you?" Norman interrupted. "And give me my Pokeballs, I need to put these guys away." Sighing much more loudly than needed, Ruby pulled them from his pocket and handed the capsules over to his father, muttering something about curling toe nails and Professor Birch's legs. When he was done, Norman took a moment to glance over at his son, who was miserably dumping all of his grooming accessories into their designated duffel bag.

"Hey."

"What nooooow?"

"I'm sorry I initially got upset with you today, Ruby. You may groom my Pokémon whenever you'd like."

"Pssh. At the rate they get filthy, I'm gonna be grooming them all the time…" Ruby's insult didn't even register with Norman; instead, he smiled and gave his son a light punch on his shoulders.

"Well then, I suggest you quit your complaining and make my Pokémon look like they belong in contests. Now come on, your mother has a nice, hot dinner waiting for us." Ruby made yet another dismissive noise as he headed toward the bathroom door, but when he was leaving Norman saw a barely noticeable grin on his son's lips that indicated otherwise. For once, everything felt all right in Norman's world.

With a smile of his own, Norman headed downstairs.

Fin.

* * *

This is an atrociously late giftfic for one of my online buddies, zel.

Even though there are some parts that are like, what, in my opinion, I guess it didn't turn out nearly half as disastrous as I thought it would. And Norman/Gym Leaders in general need moar fandom loev. :|

This is unbeta-ed, so I encourage you to bring any grammatically unsound parts of this story to my attention! Reviews of all varieties, especially concrit, are graciously welcome.


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